The deaths of Norman Alcuri and Clive Morris marked the passing of two creative legends. Alcuri was one of our finest art directors and contributed much to Singapore's reputation as an international centre of print creativity.
His work frequently graced the pages of the D&AD and One Show annuals.
At one stage, Morris had been his writer. Their partnership produced highly-awarded advertising. Although they had not worked together for years, they died within a month of each other. Alcuri's passion had actually led him out of the industry and into the restaurant business in Bali.
Never shy of calling a spade a spade, Alcuri had seen creativity eclipsed by compromise and called it a day.
The third loss, on December 17, robbed Singapore of even more passion and intelligence.
Frederick Wong was 34 when a truck knocked him down in Hua Hin, Thailand.
He had been taking some well-earned leave, having just seen his work win Campaign of the Year for the third year running in the Institute of Advertising's award show. His colleagues at DY&R Wunderman celebrated his life with a full-page ad in the Straits Times. Headlined, "Your spirit will never die", the ad continued: "You showed us that wisdom was not a function of age. Nor creativity the monopoly of a few". True enough, because Frederick Wong epitomised the suit who cares about the ads because he cares about the clients. As such, his 11-year performance in advertising provides the ideal role model for any young account service person, anywhere in Asia.
Wong's background was far removed from the Gucci towers of advertising.
His father was a motor mechanic. His public housing estate upbringing was typical Singaporean working class. He started in a small local agency, which fuelled Wong's ambition to work for bigger clients with bigger problems.
He very quickly determined that he wanted to do the kind of advertising that made a difference.
Soon he was working at Batey Ads, helming accounts like Sony. Next stop was DDB and ultimately DY&R where he became literally an institution.
He fought hard to get the best creative, then fought equally hard to sell it. As ECD Patrick Low put it, "He left a great but fleeting impression, which you see only once in your life."
He also earned the respect of industry leaders. The head of marketing at Singapore Press Holdings, executive vice-president Tham Khai Wor, said that Wong "had a lot of potential and had a long runway ahead of him."
If one were to speculate, then Wong could easily have opened his own agency within the next five years. He would have made a superb leader and his passion, intelligence and vision would have surely produced a real hot shop. He was a young icon for the young suits. In his all too brief career he demonstrated how a grassroots ad man could intuitively address the issues of relevance and creativity. He was able to strategically combine the common touch with an uncommon creative solution. When our young account service people look for courage and direction in their careers, people like Frederick Wong prove it is possible to overcome mediocrity and compromise. In fact, he proved it is imperative and rewarding.
Losing Wong, Alcuri and Morris in the same year is a blow to a small industry like Singapore's. It will be a test of the industry's resilience to replace them, especially in today's marketing communications landscape.
As advertising's importance appears to be diminishing, the industry needs more people with passion and intelligence to strengthen its resolve and relevance. Advertising will certainly miss them. Perhaps though, on reflection, they had more important things to do elsewhere.